Dribbling controls when in Isolation. When I got the ball and cleared out to go one on one vs the defender I had issues setting up the size up. I wasn't sure if it was me, but I had problems gaining any kind of advantage when face up 1v1. I've noticed this problem when watching others as well. They'll get a clear match up in their favor and they couldn't pull off the moves. in Live 16, if you get iso'd onto a big man, you can easily take advantage. This could also be because of the new timing on offense and defense, but with more hands on, and a practice mode (tutorial) it should be fine.

I've had talks with another Game Changer and he said the same thing about the dribbling. He said it was too clunky and not intuitive enough, which I agree with. There was a similar issue with Live 16, but they cleaned it up as the game progressed.

Another is the slow shots animations off the dribble, especially the step backs. I just want the shots to flow well after a killer crossover, I felt it was too slow compared to the initial move.

Since June I've been thinking about the controls, just so they can feel fresh in my mind when the demo drops, but these things really stood out when I kept going back and thinking about it. The set shots to me are fine, just better transitioning animations after dribble moves is what I feel needs improvement.

That's not good to hear since dribbling is usually Live's strong point.

Can you elaborate on clunky and intuitive? Are the moves you expecting not triggering? Does it seem to have a timing issue with the speed or the time it takes for the move to execute from when you press on the stick/button whether it be an initial move or a combo? Do the dribbles seem to be out of context in relation to the defenders position or the ballhandlers movement? Does it seem like a flashy animation is happening when it shouldn't? Does the ballhandler cover too much ground or not enough on some of the moves? Do you think some of the new ways of guarding ballhandlers cause moves to cancel out due to a collision or the defender guessing the direction correctly?

Pdub wrote:That's not good to hear since dribbling is usually Live's strong point.

Can you elaborate on clunky and intuitive? Are the moves you expecting not triggering? Does it seem to have a timing issue with the speed or the time it takes for the move to execute from when you press on the stick/button whether it be an initial move or a combo? Do the dribbles seem to be out of context in relation to the defenders position or the ballhandlers movement? Does it seem like a flashy animation is happening when it shouldn't? Does the ballhandler cover too much ground or not enough on some of the moves? Do you think some of the new ways of guarding ballhandlers cause moves to cancel out due to a collision or the defender guessing the direction correctly?

The controls are responsive, it's mainly in the isolation situations when you want to go side to side, Live 16's move was way smoother, could just be because it was a demo and I believe a lot of moves weren't in the game. The overall dribble moves are fine IMO, you can crossover on the fly way better than in 16, but you don't gain any space or separation, but it could be cleaned up.

The clunkyness comes from when the animations go from one to the next, at times there was a hiccup and you couldn't gain space and the defender could recover. You don't see it in any game play videos because they edited them up nicely. A lot of this has nothing to do with the defender, strictly with the offensive player. I'm so eager to see how they cleaned up the animations, they actually did a good job cleaning up animations in Live 16. I guess this is another way of me saying Live needs to have some consistency in game play, and they could be almost there. I seen a lot of good stuff when the dev had the controller demonstrating stuff, so I seen the real potential in the one on one battles.

I'm just eager to get my hands on the game again to see about the dribbling controls because that's all that I've been thinking about (and the game on actual broadcast cam lol) since EA Play.

One thing I'll say though, the contextual stuff is on point in Live 18 compared to other Live games. If the dribbling is cleaned up, it might be the best of any Live games.

Book_Gazette wrote:I never have touched Live on console for quite a while, and that hopefully is addressed too and a "learning-curve" was brought up too by some people.

Definitely a learning curve. In the feedback session they said they will include a dribbling tutorial. Hopefully they add the advanced moves as well, because EA games tend to leave them out *cough NHL* lol

ThaLiveKing wrote:I seen a lot of good stuff when the dev had the controller demonstrating stuff, so I seen the real potential in the one on one battles.

This has kind of been an issue with the last few NBA Live games. Admittedly they still had a lot of room for improvement, but they tended to look a lot better when a developer or someone who really knew how to play them as on the sticks. I guess it's the same for any game, including NBA 2K, but because of the specific animation issues in those games, it was a lot more noticeable when someone who knew what they were doing was showing it off.

ThaLiveKing wrote:I seen a lot of good stuff when the dev had the controller demonstrating stuff, so I seen the real potential in the one on one battles.

This has kind of been an issue with the last few NBA Live games. Admittedly they still had a lot of room for improvement, but they tended to look a lot better when a developer or someone who really knew how to play them as on the sticks. I guess it's the same for any game, including NBA 2K, but because of the specific animation issues in those games, it was a lot more noticeable when someone who knew what they were doing was showing it off.

Not an exclusive Live concern, as some games can look very bad when the inadequate player is on the sticks. It is not surprising some games have shifted into a more conservative marketing strategy where few demo videos leak out. An intrusive and advanced (as well as basic) Tutorial Game Mode shoudl adress the issue. I remember 2K had it on the old-gen, but they were a bit of a walkover, so I was not shy to get a hand into ShakeDown 2012 in-depth tutorials.